PhpMyAdmin is one of the most popular web based freeware to manage MySQL database. This program is also open source, meaning that the code is available for the public to tweak and further enhance its capability, thus it is open to improvement. Recently, this freeware was awarded “2007 SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards” for its contribution to the open source community.

Some of PhpMyAdmin features:

Create and drop MySQL databases

Create, drop and alter tables

Add, delete or edit any fields

SQL statement execution

Manage keys on fields

Manage user and database privileges

Data export / import features

Support for over 54 plus languages

Installation can be done with a wizard or just by copying a preinstalled sample configuration file. Recently, I have installed PhpMyAdmin to manage my local MySQL database. Here are the software requirements before you can run PhpMyAdmin from a web browser:

Apache server that can run PHP 4.1.0 or newer (mine is PHP version 5.x.x)

Easy right? If you have your Apache, PHP and MySQL properly installed, you will have no problem in installing PhpMyAdmin. Check out the PhpMyAdmin documentation page for a complete guide in using this freeware.